Russian History: A Very Short Introduction

It fell to Peter the Great (r. 1682–1725) to take aboard the full implications of Russia becoming an empire and European great power. He did not change the fundamental structure of Russian society, indeed he consolidated it. But he transformed the symbolism of authority and the culture of the elites. He adopted the Latin title Russorum Imperator. He implicitly repudiated the Orthodox justification of autocracy by abandoning the annual Palm Sunday ritual of riding on a donkey led by the Patriarch. He believed he did not need the church’s guidance, but was directly answerable to God for the greatness and security of his state and for the welfare of his people.

He was convinced that these aims could be achieved only by making Russia a fully European country. His eulogists boasted of his having dragged Russia ‘from darkness into light’. Early in his reign, he visited the Netherlands and England, worked as an apprentice in their shipyards, and became fascinated with the latest technology, especially in the naval and military field. Returning to Russia, he issued a constant stream of laws and edicts. After mixed military fortunes during the early years of his reign, he created Russia’s first standing army, manned by soldiers who served for life. It was financed by a poll tax, a source of revenue easy to compute and to collect through the landlords, who could enforce joint responsibility for payment on their subordinate villages. The soldiers were ordinary peasants chosen by their landlord or by the village assembly.

When peasants joined the army, their lives were transformed. They left the village in effect for ever – and some village societies would actually arrange a symbolic funeral for them. They ceased to be serfs and gained a few modest rights – a uniform, regular pay, and the chance of promotion or decoration. They became in a sense the first demotic imperial citizens. Their lives, of course, were exceedingly gruelling, especially given the harsh nature of military discipline, but all the same their morale and esprit de corps were on the whole good, and they fought with enthusiasm and determination. Foreigners began to conceive a greater respect for the Russian army. Peter’s reform initiated a period of military success. In 1709, at the Battle of Poltava, Russia decisively defeated Sweden, its greatest rival in northern Europe, and went on to conquer its Baltic provinces. Russia was ahead of other European powers in creating a national army, and as long as successful conscription and supply remained the principal conditions for success, that army thrived.

Scarcely less important, Peter created a navy and stationed it on the Baltic, declaring thereby Russia’s intention of establishing a permanent presence in Europe’s seas. Having conquered territory in Ingria, at the eastern extremity of the Gulf of Finland, he began construction of a new city there, St Petersburg. Soon, its shipyards were teeming with workers constructing the frames of a new battle fleet, whose headquarters were at Kronstadt, on an island a few miles down the Gulf.

St Petersburg was much more than a naval base: it soon became the new capital of the empire, created to mark Peter’s determination to break into the European constellation of powers. Its design showed that he also intended to adopt European architectural styles and European patterns of political and social life. Architects from several European countries designed its public buildings. Its main thoroughfares radiated out from the Admiralty building on the River Neva; senior noble families constructed their palaces in the latest Baroque style on those avenues and along the canals which intersected them, on the model of Amsterdam. In their spacious staterooms, Peter ordered that salons, balls, and other social gatherings be held, in which women, hitherto barred from grand social occasions, were required to participate. He wanted Russian nobles to take their rightful place in the European diplomatic world, where such socializing was de rigueur. Nobles and merchants were required to abandon Muscovite kaftans and don Western-style jackets, waistcoats, and breeches. They were ordered to cut off their beards, a compulsion which many found offensive, even sacrilegious, since for Orthodox believers a beard was a sign of masculine dignity bestowed by God. Those who resisted shaving had to submit to the humiliation of having it done forcibly and publicly.

5. An equestrian portrait of Peter the Great

Peter also endeavoured to create what he called a ‘regular state’, adopting European patterns of government, with Sweden and England as his preferred models. He replaced the old chanceries with ‘colleges’, whose collective administrative boards were meant to ensure that merit rather than patronage determined appointments.